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Not your grandmother's Hadassah

In honor of Women’s History Month, Twin Cities Jewfolk is posting a series of guest posts by members of their local chapters of Hadassah and the National Council of Jewish Women. This week’s post is by Joanna Lowinger, Communications Coordinator for Hadassah’s Upper Midwest Region.

It was January of 2007, I had just arrived in Charlotte, NC, and I wasn’t sure what I committed myself too. I said yes and there I was, walking into a room full of women I had never met, hoping that whatever it was I was about to do, would work.

I started introducing myself and for those that know me, you know I’m usually not the shy one, so this wasn’t hard, but it was different. As I talked to the 20 or so other women there, I realized I was standing in a room with some pretty amazing women, we were all in our 20’s and 30’s and we all wanted to make a difference.

We wanted the world, our worlds, our homes, our lives to be better. We were brought together to plan an event, which we did. I had my doubts – we were from all over the country (North Carolina, Florida, Chicago, Minneapolis and everywhere in-between), how would this work, how would we make this happen?

But, work, it did. It took several months of planning and coordinating – and outside of that first meeting in person, it was all done via email and conference calls. We created amazing programming for us to take back to our chapters and groups.

It was also that weekend I met two of my best girl friends, they were in this group of strong, intelligent and articulate women.

For some, it begins with the personal. We met because of Hadassah; I stayed to make a difference.